Los Angeles Lakers: Panic or patience regarding Russell Westbrook?

Russell Westbrook’s early-season struggles have raised concern in the eyes of Los Angeles Lakers’ nation and NBA fans alike. 

There has been a real concern in Laker-land to start the season. The Los Angeles Lakers have had a slow start as their record stands at 1-2 after the opening week of the 2021-22 NBA season. The player that has been catching a lot of heat (and rightfully so) has been Russell Westbrook.

Westbrook has had an abysmal start to the year struggling to find his footing with the Lakers. In three games, Westbrook has averaged 12 points, 7.7 rebounds, 8.7 assists, 5.8 turnovers while posting a 37 percent true shooting and a mind-boggling nine percent from three-point range.

The performances we have seen from Russell Westbrook should raise cause for concern moving forward, but I’m here to tell you that patience is what’s needed in this instance.

I’ll start off with the most important thing. It’s only three games into the season and there is a lot of time for Westbrook to find his place within this Laker squad. Even LeBron James is preaching patience here.

"[via SI.com]“I told Russ to go home and watch a comedy. Do something that can put a smile on his face. He is so hard on himself. I told him ‘Don’t be so hard on yourself. It’s only one game.”"

If Lebron James is telling everyone to be patient we should probably head his advice.

Another thing that gives me hope that Russell Westbrook will figure this out is that he had a very similar situation last season with the Washington Wizards. Westbrook struggled early and the Wizards seemed lottery-bound once again. The Wizards ended up going on a miraculous run closing out their season with a 17-6 run, finishing 34-38, and made the playoffs as the eighth seed.

Westbrook during this stretch played at an extremely high level averaging 23 points, 13.5 rebounds, 13.8 assists per game while shooting 44.9 percent from the field. Russell even averaged a triple-double for the season and passed Oscar Robertson for most triple-doubles all-time.

The fact that Russell Westbrook has done this before gives me confidence that he will eventually find his footing with the Lakers. There is a lot of basketball left in this season and right now it’s too early to go into full panic mode with Russell Westbrook.

Now if these struggles continue around the 20-25-game mark, there should be a real cause for concern. Until then, my advice to Laker nation is to take a deep breath in and out, relax, and give Russ some time to figure it out.